I missed a day. Too busy with carols and attempts to put my son to sleep, I slept that second Advent Sabbath night forgetting to rest, forgetting to write. Rest slips past us now. Today I forgot also to drink water, to eat. Now waiting in queues I regret this forgetting. The time we saveContinue reading “Advent 2: Forgetting”
Tag Archives: Gospel of Luke
Open
And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. (Luke 1:64) No good unless used for you: only death, only a swallowing tomb. No sweet grapes from a rotten vine; no figs budding from a cursed tree. When speaking, we curse; when silent, bones waste… Until the words, HeContinue reading “Open”
Damascus Road Prayers: Advent 3
Glory to your coming that restored humankind to life. (Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns of the Nativity) Because of the shadows, we miss our brother’s face, our sister’s gaze. The pace of the crowd moves us forward. If you reached out to touch my garment, I would not feel. This power departs us daily:Continue reading “Damascus Road Prayers: Advent 3”
Lent: Emmaus 3
Too fast you walk down the mountainside; momentum gathers, yet of a false and fleeting kind. A fig tree full of leaves, but fruit sorely lacking, you see the glory but faint at the sight of blood. Slow down. It is a long road and your companion lingers; His death puts brakes on our downwardContinue reading “Lent: Emmaus 3”
Lent: Emmaus 2
The heavens are telling the glory of God – (tweet tweet, like like, instant message) His voice goes out to the ends of the earth – (I fast, I tithe, I pray twice a day) Heaven and earth will pass away – (Lord, let me sit at your right hand) Before HisContinue reading “Lent: Emmaus 2”
Lent: Emmaus 1
” And he said to them, ‘O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’” (Luke 24:25-26) Slow to understand, the day turns to night. Light dwindles, the length of days shortens; haveContinue reading “Lent: Emmaus 1”
Luke 2: The Shepherds and the Temple
The child interrupts commerce, the daily graze of life, the expectations of a quiet night in the fields. The child demands leaving flocks, abandoning norms, following the angel’s call in evening disquiet. The child enters the daily, the simple: cries, shivers, needs food and warmth, yet transforms it all.Continue reading “Luke 2: The Shepherds and the Temple”
Luke 1: Zechariah and Mary
No surprise, perhaps, that the impossible’s not a boundary for the one who lit stars and sculpted the mountains, watered – drew water from – our rock. Yet unexpected now, this figure in temple, in dreams, beholding and saying what’s seldom been said, more seldom believed: The barren with child? AContinue reading “Luke 1: Zechariah and Mary”
Christmas Monday
Well: perhaps, you went to church the day before, Heard Jesus hailed as promise kept, as wise Old Simeon and Anna wept and saw The saving one, a babe before their eyes. Perhaps you picked some turkey from your teeth And thought of all the washing to be done, The relatives all gone, so nowContinue reading “Christmas Monday”
Esurientes implevit bonis (After J.S. Bach’s Magnificat in E-flat)
Two women who knew the truth of a God who exalts the humble were Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel. Both were unlikely mothers, one a virgin, the other barren and ridiculed by her husband’s other wife, Penninah. When Mary heard the news that she was bearing theContinue reading “Esurientes implevit bonis (After J.S. Bach’s Magnificat in E-flat)”
The Consolations of Writing 